(Janith is having some computer problems so I have to post this for him on my account)
Who says you can’t run a forum alongside a blog? More and more, we see community-based forums integrated into sites that were first launched as independent blogs. Or maybe it’s just me, after running across ProBlogger’s forum dependent to his 31DBBB?
Who knows, but having a forum alongside your blog has its advantages as well as its advantages – but that argument is for another day.
Today, I want to take a look at 10 reasons why the free bbPress (forum-ing software made especially for Wordpress) out-classes, out-performs and just plain-off-the-shelf KICKS A$$ over the expensive alternatives, such as IPB, vBulletin & phpBB.
bbPress and Wordpress, together are like bread and butter – they were made for each other. (Excuse the random proverb, but the point was that they are just perfect together.) From the creators of Wordpress itself, bbPress has that light-weight software feeling to it.
That’s not to say you HAVE to install Wordpress to enjoy the benefits of a bbPress powered community – it is completely independent, but the two blend in so well, that it would be a crime not to have them together.
bbPress is completely free, and it’s open-source – so you can customize it as you please. In comparison; the IPB, vBulletin and other mainstream forum-software come with a hefty price-tag but are lacking in some key areas
Feature for Feature; let’s take a look at bbPress V. Paid Alternatives
- It’s free. Yes, 100%.
- It’s simpler.
- It’s more secure.
- It’s much, much lighter.
- It’s ready, straight out of the box.
- Awesome Forum-based support.
- Clean & Simple in design.
- Many “plugins” to further-expand your forum experience.
Following the footsteps of Wordpress, Automaticc has kept bbPress absolutely free. They contributions to the blogoshphere, and the internet at large are just unprecedented and we should all be thankful for it; I definitely am.
When I used to run forums, one thing I hated about it was getting accustomed to the administrative panels and “extensively detailed” things you have to do. What’s worse is acquiring new moderators and teaching them how to use it. You must admit, that some forum-admin panels such as InvisionPowerBoard’s can get very overwhelming.
Sick of the constant hack attempts on your IPB or vBulletin forums? Well the little guy prevails once more; with added security on many new levels. I personally haven’t explored much on the security side of things; but if I could take Wordpress as an example of Automaticc’s work – there shouldn’t be anything to worry about!
Most of these paid alternatives are high-end softwares that eat up resources as you watch them. The databases build up quickly and you might have to buy new bandwidth space before you hit 100 members. If that’s your worry; bbPress is your solution. To put things in perspective; if the paid alternatives were as heavy as an elephant – bbPress is lighter than a feather.
If you head to bbPress’s support forums, that’s exactly the system (look and feel) you get straight out of the box. It’s just gorgeous in my opinion because you can go live almost immediately. No longer do you have to spend countless hours looking for the perfectly matching icons for your theme and such, it’s just as good without any customizations!
bbPress’s support forums, has mentioned above not only looks great – but it is great. If you have any questions or inquiries, you can get a reply relatively quickly. Their forums have a healthy archive, with many useful questions answered in explicit detail. If your question is not there; just open a new thread under your Wordpress.com credentials!
Well, isn’t it? bbPress is more of a bare framework than a complete forum but the beauty is that you can run a forum using just the framework! It’s as simple as it can get with, without too much detail into categorizing content, moderating functions and etc.
For those that just want to add a little bit of spice; you can definitely do so. bbPress plugins allows you to add a countless number of new features to the forum. The possibilities are limitless, but it is a common piece of advice that “bbPress + 20 plugins” are needed for a full and complete forum experience.
I’m sure anyone who is familiar with bbPress and has used it before, is probably sitting there thinking “Janith, only 8 points?” because there are so many more – but I believe these are the 8 most persuasive pointers that bbPress has over other systems.
What are your thoughts on Automaticc’s bbPress forum software?
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Cool, I honestly haven’t tried it, but I would gladly use it rather that paying for a forums software. Thanks for bringing it up.
Jake| Web Journey’s last blog post..50 Tips to Improve Online Writing
It integrates so smoothly with WordPress, I think that’s enough reason for me to use it!
I haven’t tried it yet either. But I’ve heard the features and add ons are better than the paid ones. It’s much more faster in loading and highly customizable. Thanks for sharing this!
Monty | Make Money Online’s last blog post..Get a free PR 10 back link
I have tried it before, but not very in depth. I just skimmed through the options and the style sheets and deleted it.
If Blogussion every gets a forum, I am pretty sure it will be a customized bbPress forum.
If I were to use a forum then I would definitely use bb but right now I cannot imagine trying to get that started as well as blogging and other online ventures. It seems difficult to build a good amount of traffic/participation. Too often I see forums that are just dead…
Seth W’s last blog post..How to Get Your Blog From PageRank 0 to PR 4 in 3 Months
I hear what you mean Seth, forums are so hard to manage! That on top of a blog, there’s just no way it will happen.
I didn’t know this actullay existed until today, its pretty simple too, if you’re looking to use it for a small topic or even for business/support use of some-kind, then it would be perfect, but for a large community then I wouldnt think so.
Abdul – Make Money Online’s last blog post..Free Google AdWords $50 Promotional Voucher
Learn something new everyday, huh? :p
bbPress is very simple, and that’s why I think it’s so popular.
Yeah I learn something new everyday, afterall, the industry moves fast. I just have to ‘learn’ to implement everything I’ve learned
Abduk – Make Money Online’s last blog post..Free Google AdWords $50 Promotional Voucher
I’ve not used BBPress to be honest but I’ve ofund IPB to be the best out of the major ones that I have used.
Dean Saliba’s last blog post..May 2009 Blog Income Report
Heh, I personally can’t stand IPB. The new 3.0 I think looks wretched. Personally, I’m a vBulletin kind of guy if it’s a standalone forum.
That’s really cool. Never ever known that there are free forums give away too. Thanks a lot for the mention Alex
Harish | Blogging Kid’s last blog post..List Building – Why And How ?
oh ! sorry great post Janith
Harish | Blogging Kid’s last blog post..List Building – Why And How ?
Yes, I installed it for my forum, its simple, light and most of all, from Wordpress !! BBPRESS rocks !
dinu’s last blog post..chromestory on "Wecome, Say Hello !"
Cool idea for a blog! Your forum is looking nice, was the a free theme, or did you just code it yourself to look like the WP.org forums?
I personally don’t agree with this. Forums from other software like MyBB are free, simple, have lots of plugins, and can also be integrated with WordPress. BBPress is just too simple, and isn’t really right for a big successful forum (you need to think ahead)
I agree with BBPress being to simple and such. I use SMF for my forum needs.
First of all I think there is a typo mistake in the line 7. There “…your blog has its advantages as well as its advantages” should be “…your blog has its advantages as well as disadvantages”
Well I have not seen many using bbpress as their forum software. Most of them goes with vbulletin as their forum software.
But the main thing of bbpress is that I have never seen any hacked bbpress based forum till now which I think could be it’s plus point.
Typhoon’s last blog post..Unique Content Isn’t Enough to Drive Traffic to Your Blog
Great post, but I have to disagree on the security aspect of bbpress. The reason why we have heard little on the exploits of this forum solution is due to its negligible percentage use. Look at PHPBB. It has a very large community concentrating on its development, but still to date, PHPBB is very much hackable. Reason is that it is widely used, so there are more people devoted to finding flaws and exploiting it. If bbpress was also extensively used, we would hear more stories about bbpress forums being hacked.
Richael | Domain Marvelous´s last blog ..Can .sex (or the new gTLDs) finally dethrone .com?
Some interesting points – but as far as security goes, vBulletin has an extremely good reputation in regards to security.
The most unsecure forum software out there is phpBB – which is free by the way.
I agree the bbPress/WordpressMU setup is interesting. But I found setting those up a lot more complicated than vBulletin and IPB.
I couldn’t even get WordpressMU to run on my XAMPP enviroment on Windows. Worked well on a linux server though.
I think when Wordpress merges with WordpressMU there will be some serious switching from the usual forums to WordpressMU and bbPress.
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